Simple VlookUp on MS Excel not working

Question

I am trying to use VLookUp from MS Excel 2010 for the data below:

Basically I want to update the Value of CostA by the Value given in Cost by using the Job Ref but ends up #NA

The formula I paste in cell B4: =VLOOKUP(A4,E3:F4,5,FALSE)

NOTE: The Column A Job Ref is a link but even when I remove the hyperlink the same problem occurs. I have attached the Excel file.

Excel file

Answer 1

The Job Ref number is stored as text. Select cell A4 and (a) click the drop down and select "Convert to Number" or (b) go to edit mode by hitting F2 then press Enter.

Also, your VLOOKUP reference is outside your table. Change 5 to 2.

Answer 2

=vlookup(A4,$E$3:$F$4,2,false)

The $ signs fix the range that your formula is looking in. When your doing more lookups (eg have more job references in cells A5, A6 etc), you can just paste the formula down (don't forgot to extend your range).

The 2 means when finding that job ref, return the result from the second column of your data set, with your data set being E3:F4. Because in your initial formula that was a 5, the vlookup was finding the job ref, then it's trying to return the 5th column, but E3:F4 is obviously only 2 columns so it'll return an error.

Hopefully this helps.